


Loving Frigidity

by Pathologies



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Other, Post Godmaster ending, Two people who have no ideas how emotions work deal with emotions, What better way to work out growing closer than getting fight horny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:00:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23737249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pathologies/pseuds/Pathologies
Summary: Not even the great Nailsage can prepare you for your own turmoil, or the turmoil of others
Relationships: The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel/Nailmaster Oro
Comments: 3
Kudos: 43





	Loving Frigidity

At the Kingdom’s Edge, one does not go out there to expect company. On the contrary, one goes the furthest from even the vestiges of civilization to banish the thought, the idea of company.

Naturally surprise joined Oro when company came to his door. A bug in a red cloak, though small her eyes betrayed a steely, unassailable soul. That and the giant quarry casually slung over her shoulder: he couldn’t tell from the ratty cloaks the exact shape but they could tell it was a heavy insect.

“How did you know I was here,” he demanded.

“Don’t think because you live nowhere people can’t find you,” she replied before gently setting the body before the cross-legged Nail Master. The insect was strange: a pale mask with two great thorny horns and no mouth, with a pure inky black body as though he stared into his own shadow. She continued, “I ask you take this one in your care. They are weak and need to recover strength.”

“I am a Nail Master, not a healer,” Oro rose to inspect the two of them. How serious she was. And yet...the closer he looked at this weak bug the more he saw the crack in their face and the fact they had been staring quietly the whole time.

“A healer is beyond them,” she explained, “They need a place quiet enough to regain their strength. My path would be too dangerous for both of us to be seen together now. Give enough time and I will return with recompense.”

Oro examined, thinking, “You can recompense me now. There is no law of the Great Nailsage that says you cannot pay me geo for this.”

As though she made the punctuation a reality, the tip of a sharp needle met his face. She narrowed her eyes, “There is no law from my people that says I can’t skewer your head. What will it be, Nail Master? Help restore the strength of one of Hallownest’s greatest warriors or see your own headless body?”

He stared at them, as though to challenge that strange look the weakened insect gave, “Strange….how they look like...” He would have said his student, but that crossed the threshold of emotion sharing with strangers. He already reached that with talking with a stranger today. The beetle merely sat back down with a mighty slam, “It is done.”

The insect in the red cloak was already on her way, “It better be.”

***

  
The next few days were uneventful, with the Nail Master eating silently as the insect had not even moved from the spot where the little wanderer had set them down. Oro was no healer indeed. He could see how exhausted they looked, unable to yield so much as an occasional twitch. He remained unsure for those days if moving them would make matters worse. 

During each day he sat to inhale the aroma of soup he prepared from the gnarled roots he prepared, the bitter and stringy taste they gave. And before he even brought a sip to his mouth, he moved the bowl towards the insect, catatonic, staring. “Eat.”

But each time they did not eat, not even at the offering of soup. So Oro returned to eating—with his back to crestfallen warrior.

The rest of the time he and the creature made a game with their eyes: staring. He thought it was an empty look in those eyes the first time, the look of someone on the verge of death. But he could see beyond that now. He saw something like beast backed in the corner: fearful, defensive, almost full of madness.

Oro said little to his silent roommate. Only once or twice did he speak to them. He murmured softly, on the verge of sleep, “What fate fell to you?”

Despite not moving them, Oro took great care producing his extra cloaks to surround and cushion the insect. It was only fair.

***

  
Movement returned rather quickly for the bug. It was when they slowly got assurance of their two legs did they see that first they were a tall creature, their head scraping the ceiling of their home. And two, they had an arm missing.

“Hmm,” he remarked one morning as he busied himself with sharpening his sword, “The little red one was right. You must be some kind of warrior.”

The sound of his voice did catch their attention, but not in the way they expected. They bent down, giving Oro that stare again. With them moving, Oro didn’t care for it so much. But he tried to continue with his work of sharpening his blade.

“You’re a warrior too.” he commented, “You must have a great number of enemies to end up...” 

There came a tilt of their head, their cracked mask hanging on his word.

Should have Oro felt he did something wrong? Not in that instant as he continued, “...like that.” Gesturing at their torso.

A hand touched his face, cold. He didn’t realize a hand could be so cold. But then his body went several feet off the ground, those fingers squeezing. In those brief moments Oro’s mind flipped from a calm warrior to just focusing on survival. He pounded at their wrist, “Enough! ENOUGH! PUT ME DOWN!”

And just like that, Oro came tumbling to the ground. He heaved, backing from them. Yet he didn’t see malice in their face, just the same kind of fear they saw before. He grasped his chest plate, “I’m not your enemy. I have no interest in making enemies as of now.”

Did that get through to the cold creature? He wasn’t sure, either way they rose to walk away, only to stagger and stumble again. Oro watched as they struggled getting up, still fighting with their legs in spite of the horrendous strength they demonstrated.

Oro knew he would regret this but…he offered a shoulder. He expected another grab to the face, to be tossed around and yet the creature leaned on them. The Nail Master sighed, “That’s the way...you can understand me, can’t you?”

Though they said not a word, a slow nod came from the tall being.  
Whatever they were, they were not insect, Oro concluded.

***

  
More nights passed and the being had graduated to regaining full mobility. There would be hours of a time where they remained still, as though they had much energy taxed from them with interest. Oro continued to offer his meals to the being, though they continued to refuse.

It was there that the Nail Master asked, “Can you eat?”

The question seemed to perplex them as their head dipped down, figuratively navel-gazing. They swung their head. No, not entirely.

Oro murmured, “Hmm. Could be you just haven’t found the right thing to eat.”

The Knight gave Oro another stare before sprawling back on the floor again.

***

  
Oro inhaled deeply when he accidentally woke himself with a start. It must have been another dream about his brother. The Nail Master liked to push those away. Whatever nightmare, in the dark he saw the black within black eyes of that being looking at him.

He grunted, rising from his bed as he saw them standing, quite still as a tree with solid roots would. “Do you ever sleep?”

The Knight shook their head again. The Nail Master rubbed at his own eyes, “You’re an odd one. No eat, no sleep…..but it’s a comfort to have someone watch the place while I’m asleep. No need to worry about intruders while you’re around.”

As he spoke with them, he studied those eyes again. They weren’t those fearful feral eyes he remembered, not quite. Now he could see the marks of exhaustion, the kind that those with a long life of carapace-grinding work had to them. The red cloaked one sent an interesting one to him.

He murmured again, making room in his beetle-sized bed, “Here. You laid on those floors for so long. It can’t be good for you. I didn’t try moving you when you couldn’t but now you should.”

Hesitation from the tall one. It almost seemed like an unreal invitation, to be offered something. That’s what Oro figured their stilted body language must be saying, “Get in, I want to get back to sleep already.”

It was a tight fit and Oro felt those chills when the cold of their dark near-immaterial body settled next to them. Their legs stuck out from the bed….in fact their torso made up the bed. This would have to require some innovating. He huffed, wrapping the knight in some cloaks. It was strange, the being let him do it. They let him tuck them in, get them comfortable. All the entire time their eyes had the tiniest bit of warmth to them. As though they hadn’t felt anything beyond those extremes for some time.

“Is that enough?” asked the Nail Master..

They nodded slowly. Oro sighed, settling into bed with them. Insulated, he could almost say having company with him was almost...nice. The beetle murmured, “You can’t sleep...but I’ll sleep...for both of us...”

The Knight rolled over, watching over Oro as his eyes slowly squeezed to sleep. He chuckled, “You’ll protect me then. Fine. You protect me asleep and I’ll...watch...you..." His words drifted off to mumbling words, his eyes closed and he fell back asleep.

Silent, always silent, they watched their caretaker. Truth be told, they never slept but they dreaded the prospect of what dreams may bring. But here, watching this bug drift off to sleep, they saw the peace in their face. The Nail Master may have had been troubled by sleep, but they saw how easily they returned to sleep.

The fact they could...gave some comfort. The Knight gently stretched their hand out to cup their cheek.

***

  
It was one day Oro found the Knight’s nail. As though the weapon had been hidden from prying eyes by the red cloaked insect. 

They hadn’t seen it yet, Oro bent down to marvel at the grooves within the nail, the length of it. He gently balanced it on his palm, amazed by the delicate buoyancy of the blade. He called to the Knight, “This is yours?”

In the midst of their exploring the house, they gave the Nail Master their attention. Their one hand gently stretched out to grasp it, the mighty nail almost as long as them. Oro watched them, the blade hanging from their fingers. Even hunched over Oro saw the warrior in them. At that moment an idea formed in his head.

Producing his own massive nail, he beckoned to the Knight with the hefty blade pointed from his appendage, “Show me how you use that nail. Give me all your strength.”

He saw the hesitation in their eyes and he understood. He saw the fear, the repressed intense feelings of anger and sadness. He knew because he saw it within his own eyes. He repeated to the Knight, “Don’t hold back. This is a spar between equals. Now hit me.”

At the end of ‘me’ Oro saw the long nail come right toward him in one single stab. The cleanliness of the stab, it sparked off his reflex by a half second. His massive arms swung an arc in the direction of the attacking nail. The end result came a meeting of nail tip with nail side, the momentum of the Knight’s interrupted the momentum of Oro’s swing with a ding. Oro slid backwards, eyeing the warrior. 

The Knight, however, took this seriously. They sent a flurry of ferocious beatings, stabs, all intended for Oro. The Nail Master swung his nail in hefty arcs, using the motion itself to try and confuse the onslaught coming his way. But even he couldn’t beat back the Knight’s nail pricking his bicep. At the end of their mutual battle, the two had collapsed to their knees, the energy lost from the intensity of their match.

The Knight, now regaining stock of the slashed fabric and the nicked arm scrambled to Oro in horror. Oro however, laughed. He guffawed heartily, the adrenaline rush of battle running through his body.

“Warrior...you made me think I was almost the great Nailsage….” he laid back, catching his breath as he idly tied a cloth around his bicep, “Thank you for that.”

***

  
After many nights the Knight had wandered off from Oro’s abode on their own. Oro had no quarrel with it, so long as they returned to spar. 

One frigid day the Knight stood expectantly, waiting for Oro. More interesting, he saw they wore one of his cloaks.

“Hmm?”

They had a stillness to them, but he wasn’t sure if that was trained or not. Deeper than that, he saw they wanted his company.

“Alright,” he relented, “If you have something to show, we should see it before it gets dark.”

The climb was arduous, as expected in this part of the world. Oro came here for a reason after all. But after much climbing and wandering, the Knight led them to a place the Nail Master had not considered.

At first he mistook it for a cave in the same white material as everything else. But with a second look he saw it was a beast. Was the key word. This was the remains of a massive creature, a being with a thorny maw in pure white now passed from ages ago.

Oro looked to the Knight, who stared at this thing with a lost pained set of eyes. Truth be told, those eyes never had the musculature nor brow to give the exact emotions Oro swore he saw. But he saw them all the same, if only because he saw those same feelings in his own eyes, in his brother’s.

He questioned the Knight, “You knew this...”

They nodded. They returned to staring at the cave.

Oro searched for the words, staring at his cloak trailing in the wind.”You know….”

They looked at him.

He continued, “I have my own I lost, in a way. Before you were tossed unceremoniously in my home, I thought loneliness was the one and only companion I needed.”

They crouched to his level, arm wrapped around themselves.

Oro stared right into those eyes, “….stay here. I know you’ve been better for some time, but who else could match me in the nail arts?”

A tilt of the Knight’s head.  
“You’re healthy yes, but you need to heal your heart.” he paused, “...I need it too. Maybe we can….” words have never been easy and now they were beads of fresh air coming for the mouth of a drowning bug, “...heal each other’s hearts? So stay with me.”

Together they watched the great beast in silence when-- a hand cupped Oro’s cheek. It was cold, yes. The cold felt right somehow. It was a cold his warmth sought to fill rather than be inside himself, empty. He and the Knight locked gazes. 

Somehow, that was all the asnwer he needed.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey I know I have a multi chapter I need to continue, but I just wanted to do something more indulgent so I hope it's fun for you too


End file.
